Platform Analysis - Tom and Blake

Quick Hits
Favorite Plank: "To make NISG members more accessible to students, we hope to include a "Meet NISG" section on the website. It will include biographies and pictures of all senators, executive officers and Supreme Court Justices. This will give a face to the names the students see and will allow for greater opportunities for students to recognize, and therefore engage, student government leaders."

Least Favorite Plank: "Adopt-A-Garden. Student organizations will have the opportunity to accept responsibility of particular locations on campus with regards to plant life and visual appeal. In return, advertisement for the organizations will be displayed."

Unique Plank: "We want to restart the UNI I Am A Hero award to recognize faculty, students and staff who go above and beyond in their work. Recognizing hard work will encourage further hard work. NISG should recognize efforts by university members to better UNI's community."

Platform Theme: Quantity over quality. Tom and Blake have a lot of ideas, some of them more thought out than others, but they've grouped their platform into three specific areas of concern and brainstormed a variety of possibilities. If KaLeigh and Alicia are the face of continuity, Tom and Blake are the face of change.

Specific Analysis

Website
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the website is a mess, and I'm glad to see that at least two of the tickets have made it a priority in their platform. I love the idea of putting headshots and bios on the website for each of the directors, because the current setup isn't very appealing. The reinstatement of UNI I Am A Hero is also an interesting idea and I'm all for initiatives that will bring recognition to the hardworking people of this campus. On the other hand, I don't foresee anyone posting on Rate-My-Employer or Rate-My-Landlord and I question whether executive officers will have the time to keep weekly vlogs and blogs.

Senate Meeting Minutes/Transcripts
I like this idea a lot, mostly because I love reading the Live Tweets from the @NIonNISG Twitter account after the senate meetings.

Presidential Roundtables
Great idea, in theory, but instituting it will be a nightmare. Good luck finding a night where the leaders of student organizations are all available to meet. And then, of course, they'll have to actually show up.

Public Forums/Survey Students
I like the initiative to find new avenues to hear student voices, but setting these up and getting students to actually participate will be the challenge.

Presentations at Student Organizations by NISG
This is just not feasible, in my humble opinion. There are hundreds of student organizations on this campus and, even if the candidates acknowledge that reaching all of them is unrealistic, the question becomes which organizations do get a presentation. You can't pick and choose without leaving more than a couple of student organizations feeling neglected.

Funding for Sustainable Projects
Tom and Blake want to set aside a portion of the NISG fund for sustainability projects from student organizations. But how much do you set aside? How will that be determined?

On-Campus Composting/Recycling
I like the idea of forming a committee to begin an inquiry into composting, but I wonder about the logistics of increasing recycling availability on campus. Recycling in every classroom creates extra work for the custodial staff and move-in and move-out days are already a nightmare, and bringing in extra dumpsters might add to the chaos.

Blue Zones Community
I'm a fan. The more students that are informed about the Blue Zones Project, the better.

Automatic Light Switches/Energy Audits
Good luck. I just don't see this one getting much traction. But then again, I could see the university maybe considering this for the renovated areas of Bartlett.

Low Energy Use Competition
This is an interesting idea that I think would help raise awareness among students, but one that I'd also like to hear more from the Residence Hall Association about.

Unity Week

I love that they've included this in their platform. Unity Week was a great idea, but the execution wasn't quite there, so I'm glad that this ticket is interested in investing in it again.

Inclusivity Workshops

I talked with Blake about these in our interview from last week and, to me, it sounded like something he has a lot of great ideas for and is passionate about. I think a partnership between the Student Involvement Center and the Center For Multicultural Education would be huge in making these workshops a success.

LGBT Center

This is a popular topic among the tickets, as I've mentioned before, and here the candidates mention meeting with the Dean of Students Office, but offer very little specific information on how they intend to implement this center.

Disabilities Services

I would be more impressed with the bullet point plan the candidates have laid out for increasing accessibility and awareness for students with disabilities if it provided a little more specifics. I have to wonder if increasing access to lower levels of Maucker Union is a feasible idea and I'm also curious what a "Universal Accessibility Checklist" is. They've got a lot of ideas, but I'm left wanting to know more.

Area Beautification/Adopt-A-Garden

I admire the attempt to make our campus more visually appealing, but you're going to be hard pressed to find a student organization that is going to want to adopt a plant. And I'm also not sure if our campus really needs beautification, especially on top of the Union. I'm curious, readers: is this campus ugly? Let's hear it in the comments.

Rollover Funding

I agree that the surplus of unused funding is a concern that needs to be addressed and I'm intrigued by the idea of a committee of students being commissioned to consider how it should be distributed to help better the campus.

Panther Points

This program flamed out under a previous administration and I'd be interested to hear how these candidates intend to avoid suffering the same fate.

Merit-Based Scholarships

Tom and Blake do a terrific job of illustrating the crisis with merit scholarships, but again, offer little in specifics on how to combat it, other than contacting the UNI Foundation. This seems to be a recurring theme with Tom and Blake. Lots of lofty goals, but little in the way of a specific plan of action.

Veterans Affairs

Clearly this has become a popular issue after last semester's attendance grievance and I'm not surprised that Tom, a member of the National Guard, would like to see it addressed, but I'm disappointed by his lack of specific ideas.

Greek Life

Improving campus relations between Fraternity and Sorority Life and the rest of the campus seems to be a priority for this ticket, given that they have a Greek Coordinator on their campaign team. But I'd be concerned about NISG using the rollover fund as an incentive for increased collaboration with members of Fraternity and Sorority Life.

Final Thoughts: Like I said at the top of the post, this platform screams quantity over quality. Do not misunderstand me though, there are some good ideas in this platform, but most of them are vague and can be improved with a more specific plan of action. I liked that Tom and Blake focused their platform into three different areas, but that still did not stop them from spreading themselves out and trying to cover a lot of ground, with mixed results.
This platform tells me that Tom and Blake are interested in trying a lot of new initiatives in NISG and are open to new ideas, but the logistics of some of their ideas is a big question mark. I give them credit for thinking outside the box and presenting new ideas, but I would ask that all voting students out there continue to question these candidates about the specifics of their planks.
I think both Tom and Blake have the experience and qualifications for their respective positions, but a dubious platform makes me nervous.

What do you think?